Better late than never!

Yes! Finally I received QSL for my QSO with Ross, 9M2AX. We had a QSO on 160 m 2004. And today it arrived. Thanks again Ross.

So this pushed my 160 score up one more point!
Was trying to get a QSO with XT2TT on 160 m. But I couldn't get through the big pile. And I think the QRN level is increasing on the DX side. I can hear him fine but he can't hear us. And the days getting longer so soon we will have to continue the 160 adventure in the coming Autumn.

The warm  weather continue. But today it is not as warm it was yesterday. It is around 5 C on the hot side ( approx 45 F ).

Well take care all of you readers out there. CUL!

QSL from a rare DX!

Finally it arrived! The QSL from ZL9HR. A 10 (!) pages QSL with lots of information. I will only show you page 1. But I can tell you all 10 are there. Worked them on 6 band slots on CW and SSB. Have got it confirmed via LoTW but for IOTA I need the card. So I got OC-037 confirmed to included into my next update to RSGB.

Looks like a really nice place.

Temperature outside is around 8 C ( almost 45 F ). Top so far this year. Snow is floating away!!!

Well, that's all for now. Take care.

TX2TT update.

Yesterday I managed to work XT2TT on the remaining band slots except 160 m. Grabbed them on 10 and 12 m SSB within 15 minutes. Very nice indeed! Heard them on 160 this morning. But propagation towards 60 deg North was not good. Days is getting real longer every day so we will run into problems on low bands. Hope they will come on 160 during night. During the day I worked them on RY and by this the XT2TT is complete fore me. 6 QSO:s.

Have to show you a picture from my working time. Bad quality but it show me playing with a Boeing 757-200. If I remember correctly we are in the beginning of the process to start up one of the Rolls Royce RB-211-535E4 that had to be tested after some repair.

Nice time to remember. This was from 2008. Retired June 2009.

CUL

Mess on 160 m!

This morning I heard TO22C with 56 to 59 sigs SSB on 160 m. He is working from Guadeloupe and I have never heard so many over modulated signals calling him. What's up dear fellow hams. Do you think you will get through a pile with 100% distortion??!! Amazing behaviour! TO22C was transmitting with a clean sig but the pile was a disaster. So PSE pick up your manual (if you have one) and read the part regarding transmitting SSB and special attention to the part that describes ALC function!!!!
I can tell you I was calling him to but I held my ALC within limits and, YES (!) I did NOT get a QSO with a clean sig! I guess a snow ball in hell would get a better chance, or.................????

I managed to catch XT2TT on 80 m CW this morning. Super fine sigs from him. and the pile was very big.
Now I only miss XT on 160, 12 and 10 m. So I will continue to search for him.

Any way temperature this  morning was down to minus 13 ( about 8 F ). Went out with Balder to let him do his stuff in the morning. He did it within 3 sec and rushed back in. Looked at me if I was an idiot to let him out in this weather condition!!

This picture show you all that there are a world outside Ham Radio. It is my daughters bonus child that just achieved a Clear Round with their horse. She looks happy!

CUL

Two non radio related items and some radio!

First:
have to show you all a picture of my grandson.

isn't he nice looking??!!

Next item is a new haircut of Balder

Isn't he also nice looking or.................??!!

Well anyway not much radio. Worked K9FD/KH6 yesterday morning on 80 m. This morning I heard and lsn to NH7O also from Hawaii but this time on 160 m. But he was so week so I didn't start calling him. But it would be nice with KH6 on 160 m.

CUL

Mexico confirmed on 80 m!

Today I received QSL from Armando, XE3ARV. Info regarding QSO you can see on the actual QSL

Nice to have this confirmed as it is not so easy to get QSL from Mexico. Thanks Armando for a swift replay. I will look for you on other band slots.

Worked 9U4U and 6V7S this morning on 12 m. Burundi was on phone and Senegal was on CW. The funny thing was that 6V7S was running the same set-up as I was using. Namely TS-590 and ACOM1010.

This was my second blogg today.

CU SOON!

Two new ones on 160 m.

Yesterday morning I tried to catch ZF2AM on 160 m. But not a chance in the world to get through that pile. But I managed to work a new one any way. It was EA9/DL2RNS who was calling CQ on 160 m.
But this morning I was up one hour earlier and now it was possible to get a QSO with ZF2AM.

Than I also worked NH7O but this was on 80 m. Enormous pile but on 80 m I have very good effective vertical antenna. So QSO with Hawaii was no problem. But this was not a new one. But I had not worked NH7O on 80 before. I have worked him on several other bands. He than QSY:ed to 160 m. But I couldn't hear a sound from him on 160 m. I hear EU stations working him but I can almost pick him up from the noise.But I cant really work him.

Have to show you all a picture of the snow sliding slowly down my roof. But now we have temperature around minus 4 C so the process has stopped.

Click on the picture to see a larger version of the event!

Here are a picture of my new toy. Fantastic receiver. And very good ergonomic to handle the transceiver. Very fun to work with this one. Kenwood has made it again!

Well that's all for now. Take care out there!

QSL for a real new one!

Today I received QSL from Laos. XW4XR and this was a new country as well for me.

So this pushed my total well above 300! Worked them on only 28 and 24 MHz CW. But it also made my DXCC complete for 24 MHz. So now it is time to send an application to ARRL.

Now to the next much bigger news!
Today I become a grandfather!!!! My daughter gave birth to a baby boy around 0800 this morning. So this will for shure change my priorities.

Well that's all for now.

CUL!

QSL for 160 m QSO!

The adventures continues on 160. To day I received a QSL for my QSO with KP4TF. Iv'e got this in LoTW but it is always nice to have it confirmed by a paper QSL! So, click on the picture and enjoy!

I have included the backside so you don't think I'm fooling around with you all. I'm not! My plan is to achieve a DXCC on 160 this year. Also an sticker for my 5BDXCC making it a 9BDXCC in the near future!!??

Well, time to walk the dog! He is standing in front of my door with his rear legs X-ssed. Wonder what he means by that. Anyway better to go out with him for a short walk so he can do what dog's normally like to do!

CU!

WOW! What a morning!

Fantastic sigs on 160 m this morning. DX from the West Indies coming in with more than S-9 sigs. Worked KV4FZ, TI5/NI1N and a rare IOTA, NA-204 with the call T46RRC ( Russian Robinson Club). Even Balder was impressed of signals heard and worked on 160.

But he always looks sad. I think it has something to do with the type of dog!?

Any way a very fun morning at the radio.

Take care all of you readers out there. CUL!

LoTW confirmation!

Wow once more!

I loaded up a few contacts to my LoTW account. And to my suprice I got confirmation from 5X8C on Phone (new mode), RY (also new mode) and finally 160 m QSO confirmed.
Super fine done from the team of 5X8C. I will request a QSL any way and also send a small donation to them.

Thanks again!!

Second suprice was a confirmation from T6LG also on 160 m. My DXCC for 160 m is closing in fast!!

That's all for now.

Two rare (?) DX confirmed on 160 m.

Wow! Worked 5X8C on 160 m. Worked them last night. Just one call. Might by a lottery ticket! Any way I needed Uganda on RY, SSB and 160 m. All is in the log and confirmed via On Line Log. Super!!

This morning I worked the Russian Robinson Club from Cuba with the call T48RRC on IOTA NA-218.

I borrowed the logo from QRZ.com. Hope they don't mind. They are very good operators and I managed to catch them on 160 m this morning. So both a new IOTA and a new DXCC as I do not have Cuba on 160. Tanks to the team from Russian Robinson Club.
They will move to the next island later today. Check out their home page via QRZ.com.

Well, weather is overcast and temperature around 0 Deg C. But more snow is on the way later this week.

That's all for now. Take care all you readers out there.

PJ2 QSL for a 160 QSO!

Received QSL from PJ2/K8ND today. Worked him on 160 m and on 80 m CW. Nice card and hopefully we will have some warmer weather soon. Click on the picture and enjoy!

Here today a lot of the white fluff is falling from the sky. temperature is around -2 at the moment. But this morning it was -9 (aprox 15 F). But days are getting longer by the rate of 5 - 6 minutes every day. And the sun is climbing higher every day. But to get the filing of the sun the overcast clouds have to go away!!

A new DX is on the bands with the usual leaderboard in club log. It is Uganda 5X8C. I miss 5X on SSB (worked him yesterday on that mode) and also a contact on 160 m is missing. So all I need is one more. I have 5X on all band slots and modes exept 160. What I dont understand is wy some operators work him on SSB, CW and RY on all bands. If you are chasing Challange Award and understand the rules just one QSO per band slot is fine. There are no need for big guns to work the DX on all slots just to get a green dot on a leader board. Wast of time. Give other a chance to work the DX instead, or am I wrong????

Well, back to radio. Take care out there and beware of the wolf!!??

New in the hack and finally respond from 9M2AX

I had a QSO with 9M2AX Ross, on the 17 AUg 2004 on 160 m. But so far no QSL. But now I have had an e-mail exchange with Ross and he has not received my card. So now a new card is on the way and he promised to send me one to. Reason for him not receiving my card can be many.

Tried to work a CX station on 160 this morning. But all  the callers was as usual calling and calling and calling.............! But I could hear him answering stations in EU but many was constantly calling so no one got a QSO. Finally he went split operation. But 60 % of the callers was still on his QRG!!!!!!

I've got a new radio in my shack. This one is replacing the TS-870S (HF) and TS-570S (50 MHZ only).
The radio is a TS-590S. A real banger for the buck. So this will be used for HF and 50 MHz operation.
But my contest set up is still FT-1000 MK V and an ACOM 1000.

In the background you can see the C-Line more or less retired.
The performance of the TS-590S is very nice. With roofing filtering of 500 Hz in CW mode the hearing is more than good. Astonishing for this radio compared to other radios with their prise tags more then double the one of TS-590S. Check out the test result in Radcom and ARRL. So why pay more??!!

No QSL this last week but I will keep you posted when they arrive.
Updated my IOTA score to RSGB. My total at the moment is 270 Islands. Well I started to chase for about 2½ years ago so there are a lot more to do here.

Take care all of you readers out there.

For sale!

I have put out two radios for sale. It is TS-870S and TS-570S. So far I've got one answer. Wonder what all new hams want. Both these radios is in mint condition. TS-870S is modified with 2,1 KHz Inrad filters in both MF's. This mod made a fine improvement to the TS-870S.

Have to show you all a picture of the radios. We have a lot of new hams in SM but I think all new hams want a radio with all bands including 27 MHz and 2 meter and 70 centimeter. All radios with all bands are bad compromises. And another criteria is that the radio have to be small!!! Instead of a good HF radio with fine receivers most hams in SM goes for IC-7000 and similar.
Well they can sit on the shelf here in my shack. And I can use them if I want to.

I have the wolf Balder (American Coocker Spaniel) back for a while and we have to go out and he has to perform certain duties!! ASAP!! He is telling me to come NOW!!!

So that's all for now. Take care and I'll be back very soon.